


Coal to Diamond

by ljusclara (orphan_account)



Category: Long Live the Queen (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, more alike than not, playing fast and loose with the timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ljusclara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The uncrowned queen is weak, and so she is made an offer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coal to Diamond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Person](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Person/gifts).



The ride home is the worst thing about all of it. Not the letter that had arrived a few days earlier, or the solemn meeting in the headmaster's office before the whole school was told the news. Nor the mourning service held by the priestesses that evening. Elodie had gotten through all of those, built up a wall around herself and everything happened on the other side. Not to her.

Gwenelle had stayed close the entire time and Elodie had clung to her as if she was drowning. In their room, she'd cried until she fell asleep, with her friend watching over her. Outside, she shrunk back into herself. People were watching her now, in a way they hadn't before. So Elodie shook away Gwenelle's supporting hands, talked quietly to the students she knew, tried her best to avoid those she didn't.

It itched in her, to suddenly be observed by everyone. Teachers, students, maids. There was a shared grief in all of this, Elodie knew and hated. They didn't mourn her mother, they mourned their Queen and she wanted to shout at them all to go away with their condolences and blessings, that they didn't know who she really was (had been) and you should all just shut up.

But she just bit down on the curses that threatened to slip out, and told Gwenelle in an angry, hushed tone about it later. Gwenelle listened and comforted, and it was the longest three days that Elodie had ever had to live through.

Then her father arrived, finally, to take her home.

But the ride back to the capital felt like torture.

"Your coronation will be on your birthday," her father said. "I've hired tutors so you can continue studying until then."

The carriage rocked as it hit a bump in the road, and the back of Elodie's head banged against the wall. She'd curled up on the seat next to her father. It wasn't a position worthy of a crown princess, but there wasn't anyone who would complain about it any more.

She bit her lip. "Is her tomb pretty?" They'd avoided the subject almost entirely, as if not acknowledging it would keep her mother alive. At least until the ride ended, and Elodie came back to an empty castle.

"Yes," her father replied. He looked as if he wanted to continue, but turned towards the window.

After a moment of silence, with only the sounds of the horses and the carriage between them, he continued. "The priestesses are still keeping vigil. We'll go- we'll go visit her once we get back."

"I'll bring flowers."

***

A couple of months later, the stables had turned out to be the best place for Elodie to hide. It wasn't really hiding, she thought, since it was also learning. Horses had never interested her before, at school, and anyway her mother had worried that she might get injured. But horses were big and warm and kind, and they didn't talk to her about difficult things, like taxes or how to best amputate a leg in battlefield conditions.

It wasn't as if her tutors were bad or even unkind, just that a horse didn't ask her to remember how to solve equations. It was a definite point in their favour, even if afternoons in the stable still meant learning how to handle the tack and to take care of horses, or to ride dressage, which made her body ache afterwards (her teacher, a semi-retired cavalry officer, would always complain about her posture). The stablehands weren't too fussed that she was the soon to be Queen, at least not once she'd managed to get up on her horse without help and didn't get in the way of their work.

The atmosphere was almost egalitarian. The only important thing was that she liked the horses, liked the stables, and that she didn't mind mucking out the stalls.

It wasn't such a surprise, then, that a letter reached her one afternoon as she was leading her horse (a cream mare, with a smooth gallop and the strong build typical of horses from Lillah - see, she was learning!) back to the stable after a day of practising jumping in the training field.

The surprise was instead that the letter was delivered directly to her. They usually ended up gathered in her room for her to read at the end of the day.

"I apologise for the interruption, Your Highness, but I was asked to only give this directly to your hand." The messenger said all of this as he bowed, and extended his hand.

"Thank you." Elodie handed the reins of the mare off to a groom and took the proffered letter. "Er... you can go now," she added, when the man remained standing as if frozen in position.

"Yes, yes, thank you, Your Highness. I was told to tell you to answer privately and quickly, Your Highness." He had a slightly frantic look about him, and Elodie had to force herself to not take a step back. Before she had a chance to respond, the man bowed again and hurried off.

Right... She looked at the letter in her hand. The seal wasn't one she recognised. That was a bit worrying. It was a sunny day, but she suddenly felt as if clouds covered the sky. The stable yard was so very exposed. She headed back inside the castle.

***

Once in her rooms, and with a small meal consisting of sandwiches and tea that Alice had brought, Elodie opened the letter. Perhaps she was unnecessarily wary, but she did use a knife to help fold it open. She wasn't going to take risks, and there were poisons that could be absorbed through the skin. It didn't contain anything nasty of that nature, she saw quickly - just a page, half covered in tidy script.

It addressed her according to all rules and with all proper flourishes, in a hand she couldn't place. Elodie picked some crumbs off her plate, and began to read.

The letter was short, to the point, and somehow managed to still be dripping with condescension. From the Duchess of Lillah, Arisse. Elodie couldn't help but feel an instinctive dislike at seeing the tight signature at the end of the letter. The eastern Queen of Nova - she remembered encountering the Duchess at balls she attended as a child together with her mother. A stern, tall woman, who moved with so much pride that anyone would have thought her the true ruler. She had always been calmly polite towards Fidelia, as if acknowledging an equal doing a good job, but apparently she would not be affording her daughter the same respect.

" _I question your ability to ever rule in your own name. You have shown yourself to be unprepared and incompetent: treating foreign diplomats like criminals and jeopardising the stability of Nova by antagonising the nobility and the common people both. You are not aware of the dangers of the path that you are walking. Part of the blame undeniably falls on your father, the Duke of Caloris. There is ample evidence that you are in need of a regent who is not crippled with grief._ "

The edges of the letter lifted slightly in the draught from the chimney. Elodie couldn't take her eyes off of that passage, her heart beating heavily. She felt very much like screaming.

She thought back to Arisse as she had been at the ball of the Good Lady some weeks earlier - looking like a queen as always, and Elodie had shrunk back from her, mumbling some polite phrase. The hard glint in the Duchess' eye had been enough reason for her to move on the more pleasant nobles, who would smile and bow and talk at length about their domains or dogs or they had heard a rumour that she shared some of their interests, horse riding or dancing or playing the lute.

Now... the ball had moved around Elodie but it had also moved around Arisse. She closed her eyes to think. Some nobles had stopped to talk in hushed tones with the elderly Duchess. The Duke of Maree held an especially long conversation. Why had she forgotten about that? It was such an important thing now, when Arisse's letter told plainly of the widespread displeasure and hinted at what would come unless...

Unless what? Unless Elodie gave her all the power and her crown, and probably even her mother's Lumen crystal, still locked up in the treasury. She grabbed the letter and shoved herself away from the table. She needed to talk to someone, right now. Her chair scraped against the floor, and she made the whole table rock forward and spill the porcelain on the floor in a hideous crash.

Everything was going wrong.  _Everything_. The scream she muffled into her fists helped only incrementally, so she kicked the leg of the table. It only made her toes hurt. Her eyes teared. 

"Please, Your Highness, are you well?" Alice edged closer nervously - she would have come in when everything crashed to the floor.

Elodie flushed. "I'm fine," she said and rubbed at her eyes. Why did they have to sting so much, she didn't want to start crying over a stubbed toe and broken porcelain. 

"I'm fine," she sniffled. "I'm sorry about the mess I made. I just- I have to go now." She looked as Alice bent down to start picking up the broken plates and the sandwiches, had to force herself to turn around instead of bending down to help her. Not right now. The letter burnt hot in her mind.

***

It was a burning hot late summer day. The breeze from the river did little to alleviate the oppressive heat, but Arisse still sat as close as she could get to the edge of the riverside terrace and still stay in the shade. The heat seemed to get worse with every year, and she less likely to tolerate it at all. There had been a time when she would have spent the entire day outside, training her horses or swimming in the river along with everyone else young and carefree. It felt a very long way away now.

She had the servants prepare her ice cream, but it stood untouched at the side table. The letter that had arrived that morning had been disturbed her, not least because it had been escorted by a company of soldiers. 

"You shouldn't be surprised, dear," Fabian told her. The last week he had wasted considerably, the heat taking a toll on his already fragile health. "Her grandmother had a talent for surprises. Perhaps she inherited it."

"Her grandmother was impulsive," Arisse corrected him and adjusted her shawl. 

"Not always a bad thing." He might have said more, but a coughing fit interrupted him. His nurse hurried forward with a glass of water.

"In this case, I don't trust it. The way she handled Brin and Ixion shows bad judgement."

Fabian waved dismissively at stony expression, letting his head fall back against the cushions of his wheelchair. "You'll forgive me, dear, if I rest now. The results of this will not concern me." 

"It will concern Adair," she had snapped as his nurse wheeled him away, but she knew what he would say to that. That he trusted he to do what was right for his son, and that when the Lady called for him, he would have no need to fear for his heir if he was in her hands. She would miss Fabian, when he was gone, she knew.

But it was not the matter at hand. What mattered now, and she smiled bitterly to herself at the thought, was to accede to the request of Elodie (who was not queen yet). Thaddeus would be furious, of course, but with Adele in Lillah to support him she felt less guilty about leaving him.

Elodie accepting the letter Arisse had sent  _had_ been a surprise, no matter what Fabian claimed to the contrary. She had been prepared to call in her soldiers, and to send notice to Corisande and Severin to do the same. The would have had the support from the common people - being only concerned about the ruling of Nova, and the potential dangers Elodie's unpredictable behaviour caused. The country had been punished before for the misdeeds of the ruler, and no one wanted a curse called back down from the heavens for the godless actions of their soon-to-be Queen.

The letter had been a taunt, which was perhaps foolish. Provoke a reaction to get what you want. Arisse had learnt that a very long time ago. Her parents had let her get away with things her own children would never have dreamed of, and she was very grateful for it. 

Now she had what she had wanted, even if it came with an armed escort and seemed perhaps more of an imprisonment of a criminal than the summons of a trusted advisor. But she could work with that.

***

The capital at Lampai Island was packed as always. Arisse had always found it distasteful, and when she was younger she had used to come up with excuses to be absent from court to avoid it. She preferred the plains of Lillah, with her family's sprawling palace by the Cavalla river. Of course, the river was the same here, but it moved slower, seemed dirtier and only brought with it a stench of mud instead of fresh mountain air. At least the royal castle had ample grounds. Never enough to make one feel truly free, but also enough to prevent one from choking at the constant presence of other humans.

The travel to Lampai had taken a week, and they had ridden at a speed that made Arisse feel sore, used as she was to spending most of her time on horseback. She had very few of her own people around her, and it gnawed at her. But: she had created this situation and she would accept its terms until she could change them (and she would change them).

(A letter had caught up with her on the road: a message from Thaddeus that Fabian had fallen into a deep sleep and would not wake up. Arisse knew what that meant.)

Clouds moved restlessly overhead. Her head ached from the impending thunder storm, but well, that hardly mattered. She was escorted into the castle grounds by Elodie's armed guard. So there would be a meeting already? She wondered idly who had advised Elodie to this, or if it was her own idea. When she had been in the castle last, for the ball of the Good Lady, she had heard rumours that the princess had a tendency towards gloating.

If this was a moment intended to humble Arisse, she would be prepared. Her horse is led into the courtyard, and a servant proffered a hand to help her dismount. She ignored it - she has been on horseback since before she could walk.

Elodie was waiting. A young girl, very slight, with her light hair pulled back from her face in a style that is meant to make her look more adult. It doesn't quite work, despite the glittering surrounds signalling that this, this is the Queen. Arisse knew there was more to being a queen that pretty clothes and well-coordinated servants.

She approached (across a red carpet, how lavish) and bowed deeply before Elodie.

"We bid you welcome, Your Grace. We are glad that you have arrived here at our request, to become our advisor and support in these difficult times."

Very good, Arisse thought. Her voice trembled only a little but stayed strong, and though the overcast sky made Elodie look pale and sallow, she still managed to stand straight. 

"I am very grateful to have been asked to step into this position, Your Highness," Arisse replied and bowed again. There had been a flash of anger behind the girls mostly calm façade. This would be interesting.

***

A dinner was held that evening, celebrating the ascension of the Duchess of Lillah to royal advisor. Perhaps a bit too lavish for Arisse's tastes, but she would not complain when it had offered a chance to sit in a comfortable chair, eating good food with good wine, and all the while listening to the discussions around her.

There were a whole deal of speculations, she could tell. Elodie herself hadn't spoken much, instead sitting quietly at the place of honour, with her father on one side and Arisse on the other. The three of them formed the very image of a solid and reliable rule, she thought drily to herself. Hardly a word had been exchanged between the three of them aside from the usual polite phrases.

She had chosen to retire early, made excuses and explained that the journey to Lampai had been trying for her old body.

The rooms that she had been given, a comfortable suite along the southern part of the castle, were quiet for the night. There were fires, and the curtains had been drawn. Here, by the coast, the weather was unpredictable and she was grateful for the extra comforts even as they made her more tired.

"I don't like you."

Arisse spun around. Elodie was standing right in the middle of the reception room.

"Your Highness," Arisse said, collecting herself quickly and turning her voice as cold as she can. " _What_ are you doing here."

"I don't like you, and I hate what you did," Elodie repeated through clenched teeth.

"I am not doing this to make you like me,  _girl_ ," Arisse said.

"No, you're doing this to 'save Nova from certain destruction and ruin'," Elodie forced out in a mocking voice. 

"Yes." She moved towards one of the armchairs by the fire. She was certainly not about to have this argument standing up, wearing only her nightgown. The thick castle walls chilled the air too much.

"'Yes'?" Elodie moved after her. Ha, that's a small victory for me, Arisse thought.

"Yes." Arisse turned around and looked at Elodie. "You are woefully unprepared for ruling this country. You made a mess of the negotiations with Ixion, you insulted both the Duke of Maree and his sister, you turned Talasse against you. This isn't just about you - everyone watches for every mistake you make, and oh, have you made many!"

Arisse laughed drily, and continued before Elodie could protest. "Your mother - the Lady watch over her - was already an adult when she ascended the throne. She was never coddled or hidden from the reality of the world or of the country she would have to rule. You, on the other hand, have been raised as a child with no more weight on your shoulders than a baker's child."

"Don't insult my parents," Elodie said quietly.

"I am not insulting them! I am telling you that they made a mistake with you. I've told them that before, and now I am telling you. You are the Crown Princess, and nearly an adult. You should not be so  _ignorant_ of the world that you think it is your personal playground." Arisse realised her voice had grown louder towards the end.

Elodie was silent. She stood just a few feet away, and looked more like a scolded child than the queen she wanted to be. The fire caught in her eyes, though, and Arisse knew that kind of anger that danced behind her eyes. She looked so very much like Kevan at that moment, that Arisse had to turn away to hide the sudden stitch of pain.

"You were rude about my dad," Elodie said. She looked down at her feet.

"He doesn't serve you in the best way he can," Arisse said frankly and refrained from adding that Joslyn has always been quite weak and never a natural ruler. He supported his wife well as an ambassador, but he liked to step aside and let others decide on the important things.

"I don't like you," Elodie repeated.

"You don't have to. You just have to remember that this is the better way. A civil war would have ruined everything."

"Could still be one. I could have you thrown in jail and executed as a traitor."

"And if you think my sons and daughters would not avenge me, you are quite a little fool."

Elodie's shoulders slumped. "No matter what I do, I get something wrong." Her voice was hollow.

"Welcome to the world, Your Highness." Arisse couldn't stop the bitterness from creeping into her own voice. "Now, I would rather that you leave me to my own. I haven't slept properly for a week."

The girl turns and leaves without another word.

***

The lute string bit into her fingers. Elodie struggled to hold the proper chord, balance the lute itself, and to pluck the strings just right with plectrum. Remy, her teacher, hovered above her, adjusting the positions of her fingers, her arms, her back, her head. It was fun, sometimes, but mostly she just felt like an aching mess incapable of producing the simplest songs.

"And don't stick out your tongue, miss! It is terribly unattractive, you know!

"Remy, please, it's hard." Her neck clicked as she turned to look pleadingly at him, and she winced.

"Of course it is, it is not a fiddle. You are not supposed to waltz in here with perfect knowledge of everything, and anyway  _you_ were the one who wanted to learn to play the lute."

"I thought it was going to be fun."

"You thought wrong," Remy said, and deliberately exaggerated his broad Mervan accent just so Elodie would laugh at him.

Just at that moment, the door to the music room opened and Elodie turned reflexively towards it. Arisse.

"Your Highness, we need to talk." Cold as always.

"I have a lesson," Elodie tried to say with as much withering contempt. Arisse just looked at her as if she was a truant child. As always.

"Not any more," she said, and turned to Remy. "Master Musician, the lesson is done, now and for the rest of the week."

Elodie sighed and helped Remy pack up his things. People always obeyed the Duchess of Lillah. It was as if her presence could not be denied, ever. But Elodie disliked her only in the most perfunctory fashion these days, even if she was cold and proud and sometimes entirely too grandmotherly. 

Arisse stood by, waiting as patiently as she could for them to finish. Remy left them in the music room with a quick bow, and closed the door quietly behind him.

"There have been reports of warships sighted," Arisse began suddenly. "An armada, from Shanjia."

Elodie grew cold. "What?" she said weakly.

"They'll be here within a week, maybe two," Arisse continued. 

"Our forces should be able to hold them off for a while, at least," Elodie said and bit her lip. She felt herself start walking - she needed to look at maps. "The generals, I need to talk to them."

"I sent for them before I went looking for you, and they'll meet us in the in library."

Elodie glanced back at the older woman, and froze to a halt. "How can you be so calm about this!"

"I am not afforded with many choices at this time," Arisse said.

"You're not even angry," said Elodie quietly. She felt sick, but she started walking again.

"It wouldn't help," snapped Arisse. "You need to calm down, or you will be utterly useless, do you understand?"

The stairs closest to the music room, that lead up to the library, wound steep through the thick walls, and Elodie took the steps two at a time until her heart was beating so hard it felt like it would jump out her chest. She would have run the rest of the way to the library, but something made her stop and wait for Arisse to calmly and collectedly ascend the stairs.

"I'll go with the navy and fight Shanjia," she proclaimed.

"That's idiocy!" Arisse hissed back, she walked off towards the library with long strides, and Elodie had to jog to keep up.

"It's not idiocy, I know I can direct our navy if I can be there to do it." She felt calm as she said it.

"I see you've been paying attention to your lessons," was the only thing Arisse said, and stepped inside the library.

After that it became a war meeting. Elodie memorised the number of ships, the number of men, she looked at the maps, and she argued that her presence in the fleet would help lead them to victory. She was relieved when her father agreed with her, quietly stating that he trusted her to know the extent of her own abilities. Arisse grew sharper with them all, until she simply capitulated, snapping that she hoped that Elodie was right because if not, Nova would be gone.

***

The atmosphere in Lampai was strained. Everyone knew about the Shanjian fleet, waiting off the coast, with only the much smaller Novan fleet between them and the capital. People had fled into the countryside, trying to get as far east as they could before the army landed. Men would be slaughtered, women raped, the houses torched and their treasures stolen - the rumours and whispers were everywhere. It was inescapable.

Arisse paced the length of her room slowly. She had stayed in Lampai, despite the fact that it would have been easy for her to flee to some remote spot in Lillah. But she couldn't. The fleet had disembarked a few days ago, with Elodie on board, to lead it. Arisse had made no secret of how foolish she found the role Elodie had put herself into. A young child playing at war, thinking it would be easy, that she'd be a hero that saved the country from all-consuming Shanjia.

She made herself sit down at her desk. She had cleaned away all the letters, all the maps of the planned naval battle. It would have to work, somehow.

But it was foolish.

Elodie was rash, and though Arisse had worked hard at making her more susceptible to reason instead of it merely passing by once in a while, the rashness was the one trait she had not been able to restrain at all. She was a lot like Kevan. Arisse hated the way her firstborn kept creeping into her thoughts, but she had to admit to herself that the comparison was apt. Kevan and Elodie were both rash and stubborn, both firmly attached to those who they loved. The only difference was that Kevan had died, hunting after that foolish girl Briony.

There were only a few weeks left until Elodie's birthday and coronation. She pulled at a loose strand of hair, staring out the window. It was a sunny, cloud-free day, with a pleasant westward breeze. It would have been a beautiful day, if not for what was at the horizon.

Arisse frowned. This was useless - she could do nothing to help the the Novans, she was no Lumen, she could not sink the Shanjian fleet. She couldn't even scry for them, to see what was happening. She would not be useless, so she pulled out papers and pens, and began writing instructions for Thaddeus in case Elodie would lose.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this fic, as I enjoyed writing it!


End file.
